A Rose By Any Other Name
by bubbleteadesu
Summary: AU; Lovino hated his name. But if Mr. Barista kept saying it like he was making sweet love to it, then Lovino might just start liking it.


**Title: **A Rose By Any Other Name  
**Author:** bubbleteadesu  
**Characters/Pairing:** Spain/Romano  
**Rating:** T**  
****Summary:** AU (human names used); Lovino hated his name. But if Mr. Barista kept saying it like he was making sweet love to it, then Lovino might just start liking it.  
**Warning: **language  
**AN: **Supposed-to-be-a-flash-fic that grew because that's how I roll. Meaning of Lovino from here: **http:/ wiki. answers. com /Q/ What_do_the_name_Lovino_mean** -no spaces!  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hetalia.

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Lovino hated his name.

It didn't help that he knew his father had taken it from the hero of the erotica novel he happened to be reading when he first met Lovino's mother. His father probably didn't even bother to look up its meaning before giving the name to his precious first-born son, the lazy-ass bastard.

Lovino had looked it up though, when he was ten and was looking up shit on the internet he later realized he was better off not knowing after all.

_Lovino probably came from the Italian word rovino__,__ the 1st person conjugation of __rovinare__. Rovinare means 'to ruin', making rovino 'I ruin'._

Who the fuck named his son, _I ruin_? It was something you would name a nuclear weapon, or those huge-ass robots in Japanese animated films his roommate loved to watch. Why the fuck was it even the name of an erotica novel protagonist? What, was his dick some weapon of mass destruction?

So in short, Lovino hated his name. He made a conscious effort to give his middle name (which, for everyone's information, was Romano because not only was Romano Sr. a lazy-ass bastard, he was a damn egotistical one too. He didn't even think how absolutely fucking _horrible_ Lovino Romano Vargas sounded, _mio dio_.) to everyone who asked his name.

So he felt a mild shock run through him when he heard the dreaded first name passed through his lips at the barista's question. That fucking thesis was finally getting to him, was it?

The barista flashed him a wide, shockingly bright, smile. "One cappuccino with a triple shot of espresso for Lovino coming right up!" Lovino really wished he hadn't heard his name pronounced like that, like its every nuance had been tasted and savored before being rolled down the tongue smoothly with just a hint of _accent!_, like how Mr. Barista did it. Not only did it raise the bar of name pronunciation for oh, _fucking everyone else in this planet_, it made Lovino feel like he had somehow tasted Mr. Barista's mouth, and it had tasted _delicious_. And it was definitely not something he wanted to think about. Of course not.

Lovino was taking his frap to-go, because when you were in the middle of a fucking thesis, the word _break_ in _coffee break_ somehow ceased to exist, and so he shunned looking for a table in the empty café, choosing to lean against the counter instead.

Mr. Barista took this as a sign Lovino wanted to stay and talk. And so, as he measured coffee beans carefully and poured it into the coffee maker, he told Lovino casually, "I think Lovino is a lovely name."

_It's only lovely when you say it like that_, Lovino conceded in his head. Instead, he muttered, "Not if you know what it fucking means."

Mr. Barista licked his lips thoughtfully at this, suddenly making Lovino feel unusually hot in the air-conditioned café. "Well," he said thoughtfully, "I think the meaning of a name isn't that important anyways. I mean, I've known my name is Antonio for twenty-seven years, and I still don't know what it means!"

Lovino stared at Mr. Barista. "Did you just give me your name and age?" he asked slowly.

Antonio winked at him. "I just did. I got tired of waiting for you to ask what it was." He pushed a Styrofoam cup towards Lovino. "A steaming cup of delicious cappuccino for Lovino~"

Lovino looked down at it. Antonio had drawn a dainty heart on the foam, surrounded by equally-dainty flowers. "That actually looks pretty," he said, mildly impressed.

"Would you like someone to go with that cup of coffee?"

"No thanks—_what_?" Lovino gaped at Antonio.

Antonio was already removing his apron. "Don't worry, my shifts already over. I already know your name, might as well know more things about you. Like your hobbies, likes, dislikes, etcetera, etcetera." He grinned at Lovino. "What do you think, Lovino?"

Lovino smirked. "Well, my thesis is a clingy bastard so we'll have to make it quick."

Antonio was out of the counter and beside Lovino in no time. "Ah, treating your thesis like a person? One more fact about Lovino I've learned in less than ten minutes."

Lovino's smirk grew wider until it turned into a grin. If Antonio continued saying his name like he was making sweet love to it, Lovino might start falling in love with it (_or with him_).

_end_

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Some Notes: Ever since I've heard people on tumblr go about how Lovino is a horrible name because of the meaning (no comment on that), I've sort of wanted to write a fic about how Lovino hated his name except when Antonio said it, because _damn_ is that accent sexy. but I only got around to writing it a while ago, while waiting outside the doctor's office fffff. There was supposed to be an omake about how Lovino was telling this story to his and Antonio's children but jkfkljf couldn't think of names okok. Hope you guys like this! (man is this note long)

Also shameless plug but I now have a fic tumblr! It's** raindropsan at tumblr ** so check it out! :D


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